Keep Calm and Teach English

Congratulations to the students of the 3rd High School of Veria who worked for last year's eTwinning project. It was fun and educational at the same time. We worked with 12 other countries from Europe: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, France, Fyrom, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. We learned a lot about our partners' history, geography and traditions through each country's national symbols (official and unofficial) and made new friends. The Quality Label is an affirmation of our efforts! 

Differentiated instruction is a framework of teaching and assessment that involves providing different students with different avenues to learning within the same classroom, so that they can all learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability. This is particularly important in mixed ability classes. Think-Tac-Toe activities are an easy way to cater for a larger number of students. photo by  anarosadebastiani Think-Tac-Toe plays off the familiar childhood game (tic-tac-toe or naughts and crosses). It is a simple strategy that allows students to choose how they will show what they are learning, by giving them a variety of activities to select from. Students are given a 3 x 3 grid, just like a tic-tac-toe game with the exception that each cell is filled with an activity.  Creating a Think-Tac-Toe is quite simple and the format can be easily adjusted to practise different content areas. Think-tac-toes can address multiple learning styles and intelligences. A...

Only two days left for the school year to officially start. I'm in my new school, a Junior High School after 4 years in a High School. Students are younger (12-15 years old), their level is lower (A2 -B1), books are different, new material is needed... Searching the Internet for material related to the Think Teen series I came across a very helpful blog by a colleague in Serres. Adapting the YOU file found in http://www.thinkteenjuniorhigh.blogspot.gr/ here is a "getting to know you" activity where students present themselves through fingerprint profiles. They make nice art for the classroom walls too! Fingerprint Profile

The Pearl is a famous novella by John Steinbeck. Published in 1947, it is the story of a poor pearl diver, Kino, who finds a valuable pearl and is convinced that his life will change. The story explores man's nature as well as greed and evil.  Steinbeck's inspiration was a Mexican folk tale. Here is an abridged version of the story for B1 students. (Extract taken from Opportunities Pre-Intermediate, Longman)

Every teacher knows the struggle of how to capture the students' interest at the beginning of a lesson. Engaging them into their own learning can prove to be even more difficult. One way is to use a KWL chart. In my lesson about Sherlock Holmes I used such a chart as a pre-reading activity. A KWL chart is a graphical organizer designed to help in learning. The letters KWL are an acronym, for what students already K now, what they  W ant to know, and what they ultimately L earn in the course of the lesson. A KWL chart consists of three columns and it is very simple to design and use. However it is a very powerful tool as it motivates and engages students from the very start. First, a KWL chart activates students' prior knowledge of the topic to be studied. Next, it sets a purpose for the lesson: students are able to add their own input to the topic by contemplating what they actually want to know. Using a KWL chart allows students to expand their ideas beyond the text us...